Beha’alotecha – You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Beha’alotecha

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Please note: A subsequent d’var Torah by Rabbi Gradofsky dealing with these themes appears at https://utj.org/viewpoints/parashat/behaalotecha-challenging-the-status-quo.

A footnote in my teacher Hakham Isaac Sassoon’s The Status of Women in Jewish Tradition gave me a new perspective on a story in this week’s parasha.

In Numbers 9:6-14, a group of people approaches Moses, noting that halakhah prohibited them from participating in the Passover sacrifice because they were ritually impure.  God responds that they are to bring the Passover offering a month later, on what is now known as “פסח שני,” the Second Passover.  I had always read this as God agreeing to the request made by the people who approach Moses.  However, Hakham Sassoon describes this episode as follows:

At Numbers 9:7, men who have contracted corpse-defilement beseech Moses to allow them to participate in the Passover “at its appointed time in the midst of the children of Israel”.  Their request is turned down and instead the Second Passover is instituted.[1]

Indeed, a close read of the text reveals that God does not agree with the people’s request.  The people say to Moses “לָ֣מָּה נִגָּרַ֗ע לְבִלְתִּ֨י הַקְרִ֜ב אֶת־קָרְבַּ֤ן יְהוָה֙ בְּמֹ֣עֲד֔וֹ בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל Why should we lose out so as not to make the LORD’s sacrifice at its proper time among the Children of Israel” (Numbers 9:7), clearly demonstrating that their request is to make the sacrifice at its regular time along with the rest of the Israelites.

There is an important lesson to be learned here for those who ask a question challenging the halakhic status quo and an even more important lesson for those who respond to those challenges.

To s/he who asks the question, this episode teaches that sometimes the answer is “no.”  Sometimes what is desired is simply not acceptable under halakhah.

To those who answer these questions, this episode teaches that even if the answer to the question is “no,” that is not the end of the story.  Rather than simply responding to the people’s request, God considers how the people’s concerns could be accommodated as best as possible within the confines of the law.  Although these people may not bring the Passover offering at its regular time, they are provided with a second date to bring the offering.  Further, God allows anyone who is unable to participate in the regular Passover, either due to ritual impurity or due to being away at the proper time, to participate in this second Passover (Num. 9:10-11), perhaps in some way accommodating those who approached Moses by providing them a larger group of people with whom they can join in making the sacrifice.

Of course, this does not mean that every request needs to be accommodated in some way.  In the first place, we do not have the same leeway in decision making as God does.  Further, there may be a variety of reasons why the answer to some questions may be a flat-out “no.”  For instance, PERHAPS at times the reasons behind the request should be considered, though, interestingly, traditions surrounding the פסח שני episode suggest different perspectives on that question.[2]  On this point, my teacher Rabbi Leonard Levy notes that in the several episodes in Numbers where a challenge of the status quo is met with accommodation, the challenger is presented as “coming close” ((קרב “before” ((לפני  Moses, whereas in the unsuccessful challenges of Moses’s authority the language is that the people “gathered” (ויקהלו) or “grumbled” (וילונו) against (על) Moses.[3]

At the very least, sincere intentions ought to be accommodated as much as possible within the confines of halakhah even when the request cannot be completely granted.  As a wise sage noted, “You can’t always get what you want.  But if you try sometime, you just might find, you get what you need.”[4]

[1] The Status of Women in Jewish Tradition p. 153 fn 2.

[2]  See e.g. the discussion in Hakham Sasson’s Destination Torah,  p . 220.  There are particular traditions suggesting very noble reasons why those who approached Moses were in a state of ritual impurity, and the Mishnah seems to allow only those who could not participate in the first Passover for noble reasons to participate in the Second Passover.  However, a baraita suggests that one may participate in פסח שני regardless of what situation led to one’s inability to make the Passover sacrifice at the regular time.

[3]Compare Num. 9:6 in the Second Passover story, Num. 27:1-2 regarding Tselofhad’s daughters, and Num. 36:1 regarding the elders of Gilad to the complaints after the spies’ report at Num. 14:2 and Korah’s rebellion at Num. 16:3 and 17:6-7.  Rabbi Levy also notes that in each of the former episode the challenger’s “respectful questions are motivated by a sense that the law as understood makes them feel deficient” as expressed through the root גרע in Num. 9:7, 27:4, and 36:3-4. I thank Rabbi Levy for offering this input upon reviewing an early draft of this d’var Torah.

[4] The Rolling Stones.  Song by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.